U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
| Fiscal Year | Innovations | Project |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Autonomous Attenuator | NDDOT's Autonomous Attenuator Project ($241,687) |
| Fiscal Year | Innovations | Project |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Structures | Deployment of Scour Critical Bridge Fixed Instrumentation ($125,000) |
| 2024 | FTIR, XRF | Pilot the use of a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) and Handheld X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) to provide a material fingerprint used for acceptance testing ($62,500) |
| 2024 | UAS for TIM | Implement the use of Tethered UAS for emergency response events ($62,500) |
| 2023 | SWD | Develop a Heavy Equipment Operations training program ($100,000) |
| 2022 | e-ticketing | Implement a vendor agnostic e-Ticketing portal ($8,000) |
| 2022 | pavement, Targeted Overlay Pavement Solutions (TOPS) | Pilot the use of an asphalt extractor to analyze the properties of Recycled Asphalt Pavements (RAP) ($84,000) |
| 2021 | Targeted Overlay Pavement Solutions (TOPS) | Employ Targeted Overlay Pavement Solutions (TOPS) asphalt performance testing equipment ($100,000) |
| 2020 | Weather | Measure the time required to return to normal speeds after a storm event, by automating the collection of speed data ($100,000) |
| 2019 | UAS | Implement an Unmanned Aerial and Inspection Systems Program ($50,000) |
| 2019 | GPR, Pavements | Implement and expand the use of Density Profiling System technology within the NDDOT ($50,000) |
| 2018 | UAS | Advance Unmanned Aerial Systems and include unmanned inspection systems ($100,000) |
| 2017 | e-Construction | Advance the e-Construction initiative, including combining two required diaries into one “General Project Diary” and adding a general file upload feature to upload, organize and search documents ($100,000) |
| 2016 | Innovation Management | Continued Support for the NDDOT’s Transportation Innovation Program (TRIP) ($100,000) |
| 2015 | e-Construction | Implementation of e-Construction through the expanded use of mobile devices for field personnel ($100,000) |
| 2014 | Innovation Exchange | Innovation Exchange Campaign ($100,000) |
| Date | Innovations | Project |
|---|---|---|
| 01/01/24 | AID Demonstration | North Dakota will address issues associated with vehicles striking bridges due to incorrect routing based on the vehicle’s size, inaccurate measurements, or incorrect permitting. The DOT will deploy an oversized vehicle measuring system technology pilot in Minot and near Mooreton... |
| Date | Innovations | Project |
|---|---|---|
11/1/2022 | Intersection Geometry | The North Dakota DOT (NDDOT) improved safety and efficiency for motorists while saving money with an innovative roundabout design for a busy intersection. The Beulah Retrofit Roundabout project addressed safety challenges at an intersection that had ranked fourth on the agency’s rural intersection high-crash location list. NDDOT retrofitted the roundabout on the existing intersection, which saved about $2.5 million on the conventional cost of new construction. According to an NDDOT video about the project, the agency built the roundabout in less than 30 days, significantly less time than would have been needed for a full reconstruction. The savings in time and materials reduced the project’s impact on both the environment and the traveling public. NDDOT reported it has also significantly improved the flow of traffic. Read More |
05/01/20 | AID Demonstration | The North Dakota Department of Transportation will install autonomous technology on an attenuator truck to increase safety for workers performing maintenance activities. The technology eliminates the need for a driver on the truck outfitted with an impact attenuator—or crash cushion—that travels behind mobile work crews to deflect vehicles that could hit people or equipment. |
07/01/18 | State Transportation Innovation Councils (STIC) | Held twice a year, national STIC meetings provide a forum to share innovation best practices and to learn how other States are using new tools and techniques. The April meeting focused on a North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) pilot project on the use of fiber optic roadside monitoring to optimize traffic operations, an innovation with potential for application elsewhere in the country. Read Innovator Issue 67 |
| 07/01/17 | State Transportation Innovation Councils (STIC) | The North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) is testing a fiber-optic traffic monitoring system on I-29 in Fargo. The equipment can detect real-time traffic speeds along the length of the fiber-optic cable buried next to the road and volume data at locations where the cable crosses travel lanes. This is the first North American test of the traffic monitoring capabilities of the system and the first global test of traffic counting. The system was identified through NDDOT’s Transportation Innovation Program, which received funding from the State Transportation Innovation Council Incentive program. Read Innovator Issue 61 |
| 09/01/16 | Programmatic Agreements | The North Dakota Department of Transportation and FHWA executed a programmatic agreement for categorical exclusions to help streamline the environmental review process on Federal-Aid Highway Program projects. The agreement enables the North Dakota DOT to determine whether a project qualifies for categorical exclusions, actions that don’t involve significant environmental impacts. The agreement will expedite project delivery while maintaining accuracy in the environmental documentation and approval process. Read Innovator Issue 56 |
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| Date | Innovations | Project |
|---|---|---|
| 07/01/21 | FoRRRwD | The North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) proactively assisted local and tribal agencies in the State to achieve crash reductions on their roads by making 50 percent of its Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funding available to help them implement Local Road Safety Plans (LRSPs). The State also created a website to house their plans to encourage the sharing of best practices. This addressed another FoRRRwD pillar, safety action plans. Local Road Safety Plans were developed for every county, major city, and tribe in the State. The LRSPs used a systemic approach, which is another FoRRRwD pillar. This approach uses crash and other data to look for risk factors that correlate with severe rural roadway departure crashes. For instance, the Cass County plan used five risk factors for curves – radius, average daily traffic, intersection, visual trap, and crash history. With the systemic approach, practitioners look for all the curves on their system with multiple risk factors and target proven, cost-effective countermeasures to those locations, sometimes before crashes happen. In fact, proven countermeasures are the other FoRRRwD pillar. Roadway departure countermeasures such as curve warning signs and rumble strips were implemented on local roads as part of the NDDOT program. These improvements were also bundled in county-wide and multi-county projects, to achieve cost-effective economies of scale. With these efforts, NDDOT observed a 14-percent reduction in lane departure severe injury crashes on local roads and a 21-percent reduction in curve crashes on local roads. Read More |
| 05/03/18 | State Transportation Innovation Councils (STIC) | The spotlight presentation at the April National State Transportation Innovation Council (STIC) meeting focused on a North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) pilot project on the use of fiber optic roadside monitoring to optimize traffic operations. The first of its type in North America, NDDOT's distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system allows for continuous acoustic measurements along the length of an optical fiber buried close to the road shoulder. The test system, located on Interstate 29 in Fargo, is capable of monitoring traffic speed, travel time, and volume in real time. Read EDC News 05/03/18 |
| 06/23/16 | Programmatic Agreements | The North Dakota Department of Transportation and FHWA executed a programmatic agreement for categorical exclusions on June 17 to help streamline the environmental review process on Federal-Aid Highway Program projects. The agreement enables the North Dakota DOT to determine whether a project qualifies for categorical exclusions, actions that don’t involve significant environmental impacts. The agreement will expedite project delivery while maintaining accuracy in the environmental documentation and approval process. Read EDC News 06/23/16 |
| 04/07/16 | STIC | The North Dakota Department of Transportation is starting year two of its partnership with the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute on the Transportation Innovation Program. TRIP solicits and implements innovative ideas from stakeholders for transportation-related projects, processes and products. May 16 is the deadline for the current call for suggestions. TRIP received funding from FHWA’s State Transportation Innovation Council Incentive program. Read EDC News 04/07/16 |
| 03/24/16 | STIC | The North Dakota Department of Transportation is deploying 13 technologies and processes identified through its Transportation Innovation Program. TRIP—an ongoing program with multiple solicitations each year—received 40 suggestions from industry, associations, universities, tribes, local agencies and North Dakota DOT staff since its launch in 2015. Ideas chosen for implementation include using distributed acoustic sensing technology to monitor traffic flows and developing a digital driver’s license application process. The North Dakota DOT is partnering with the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute on the program, which received FHWA State Transportation Innovation Council Incentive funding. Read EDC News 03/24/16 |
| Date | Innovations | Project |
|---|---|---|
| 08/20/15 | e-Construction | Leaders from the North Dakota Department of Transportation and the North Dakota chapters of the Associated General Contractors and American Council of Engineering Companies met recently to discuss plans to advance e-Construction in the state. Texas Department of Transportation and FHWA representatives were on hand to talk about the benefits of paperless construction administration, how other states are using e-Construction and the availability of implementation tools. Next steps for North Dakota include drafting a vision statement, organizing a peer exchange and piloting e-Construction in 2016. Read EDC News 08/20/15 |
| 02/07/14 | Use of In-Lieu Fee and Mitigation Banking | FHWA“ along with the Environmental Protection Agency, Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, North Dakota Game and Fish Department and Army Corps of Engineers ”has approved the Ducks Unlimited ”North Dakota in-lieu fee program. It will operate as an umbrella program in six areas of North Dakota. It will provide a third-party compensatory mitigation option for unavoidable impacts on aquatic resources such as wetlands and streams approved by the Army Corps of Engineers under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. Read EDC News 02/07/14 |
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| Date | Innovations | Project |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Data-Driven Safety Analysis | The North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) developed Local Road Safety Plans for the State’s counties and major cities. NDDOT dedicated funds to local road safety projects and is implementing projects developed during the planning process. The agency plans to adopt a Highway Safety Improvement Program implementation plan that includes a systemic safety analysis process for the State highway system. NDDOT completed a decision document for implementing a State Road Safety Plan. Read EDC-3 Final Report |
| Date | Innovations | Project |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 3D Engineered Models | During EDC-2, the North Dakota DOT bid two projects using 3D modeling and for the first time required contractors to use automated machine guidance for earthwork and grading. Using 3D modeling with automated machine guidance reduced the time needed for and cost of survey staking. The agency now supplies 3D engineered models to contractors during the bidding process for all projects that are automated machine guidance candidates. Read EDC-2 Final Report |
